Sunday, October 25, 2009

Unzipped & Zach Sire Under Fire

Racism in the gay porn industry is reaching the point where people are tired of it. Perfect examples of this are from this past week are recent posts at GayPornTimes where J.C. Adams did a post about some complaining about FlavaWorks raised profile on gay porn media sites because of the addition of their only white exclusive, Cody Kyler, coming at the expense of their models of color, which is supposed to be the studios niche. I commented on this. Feel free to check out my response here at your leisure.

There was also a post from my friend, Victor Hoff at MOC Blog addressing Randy Blue's dwindling number in their use of black models, considering how they used a total of 39 since the site's inception in 2003 till now. The problem with this number is that of that 39, 26 were used in the first year. That means from 2004 till now Randy Blue has only used half of that number, 13 over the next 6 YEARS to follow. This needed my commentary also.

In response to this, Zach Sire at Unzipped.net wrote a piece that I (like others) felt was a character assassination against Victor, and showed an immense degree of denial to the reality of racism in American gay porn. I wrote a comment there as well. And I had to, because Zach Sire and the people at Unzipped who felt it was OK for Zach to post this showed a high degree of racial insensitivity. They are obviously whites who take their status in gay porn for granted, and don't take the time to think about the MANY minorities who contribute to money made in the gay porn industry, but are repeatedly ignored by gay porn news sites like Unzipped, The Sword, and Chronicles of Pornia, and producers/directors of "mainstream" studios.

As I always try to, I will give credit where credit is due. In this case, that goes to Chronicles of Pornia, because in light of the situation with FlavaWorks, he was man enough to admit to falling into the trap of ignoring minority talent. Will the other sites and producers/directors be man enough to do the same? I doubt they ever will. But if they do, I will be more than willing to issue an apology for all the vile existence that I am calling them out to be right now.

Some might think the above statement is one of someone jaded and bitter. That would be the opinion of those who are sell-outs - not so much to their race color-wise, but more so to their race by degrees of humanity. I am bitter, but not for myself. I am someone you can say whatever you want about me, I really don't care. You're safe from an attack by me as long as you don't sight a specific reason for your claim, and twist the truth around for the sake of your claim. When you talk about my friends and family however, you are cruisin' for the harshness of a brutally honest verbal bruisin'.

And that is what Zach Sire, and the inepts at Unzipped to allow that post have done here.

Zach Sire has shown himself to be completely racially insensitive, and his superiors at Unzipped Media showed they are no better by allowing it. When I bought the racist incident involving Pierre Fitch to their attention via a comment, Zach deleted the comment, and had the nerve to call it "dumb", grant Pierre Fitch an interview, and saying that people make up stories all the time.

First off, you my loyal readers know that I don't just pull stories out of my ass for publicity's sake. With that in mind, why would I bring up an incident from 2 years ago involving a porn actor whose hey-day of popularity has gone? MAYBE for the sole purpose of helping the integrity of a website or publication (Unzipped) by making them wise to who they are giving such press to, and how it could backfire on them for doing so. For it has come to my attention that my telling of that racist incident involving Pierre Fitch has grown legs in those 2 years ----and it still is THANKS to Unzipped. So like most racially insensitive people, Unzipped has become their own worst enemy. And with that thanks, I also ask Unzipped's forgiveness, for trying to help them maintain some integrity that they obviously don't have ---- ANYMORE.

When an undeniable fact like the one Victor Hoff brought to the forefront about Randy Blue is put in front of you, how can Zach Sire deny that some form of racism is at play here. For even if Zach Sire's actions away from Unzipped show him to not be a racist, the fact that he is in denial of this situation makes him an enabler, therefore just as guilty. As my comments on the matter show, whether the racist actions are motivated by personal feelings or patronage numbers, IT IS WRONG, and the company owner has a decision to make if their existence overall is to be worth a damn. And Zach Sire and those at Unzipped trying to sweep it under the rug, only makes the situation worst to where it is today - where the overlooked minorities and those open-minded (therefore worthwhile of an existence) to be their admirers are getting tired of it to a degree of becoming seriously belligerent, as some comments on the all the aforementioned post show.

This reality of the intolerance of racism in gay porn is plastered all over the blogosphere. Of course you won't see it told to you on the believed to be popular names like GayPornTimes, TheSword, and Fleshbot. Since action speaks louder than words, if it is not a verbal code, their actions show that there is a code they follow to not make this reality known to the public, and that sales are doing OK, when they have actually been falling since BEFORE this recession.

My bringing such points up in my comments on Unzipped.net has had me on the verge of being banned from commenting. Now is that mature, OR is it the move of someone trying to run from the truth. I've never banned, or threatened to ban anyone from this blog for challenging my views. I just demand a name when you do so for the sake of making you own your emotion. Because if you don't own it, then it's not worth acknowledging. With that said, if they want to ban me, let them. Because the funny thing about the truth is that you can try running from it, but you can never hide. So should I ever be banned there, I still have my own blog, and other friends in the blogosphere, so the truth that I speak will get out there. No matter how much people like Zach Sire and his co-horts in denial and other publications try to sweep the obvious truth of racism in gay porn and the gay community under the rug - the truth of racism and America's growing intolerance of it in all forms of media will prevail.

Victor Hoff offered this great quote that I felt was perfect to close this post with:Racism in the Gay Porn Industry is the great, big elephant in the room and many of the top names in the business recognize this. It’s important to remember, though, that we will overcome this ugly stain only by utilizing the cool, powerful arsenal of facts as our weapon of choice. Time, as they say, is on the side of truth and while it may be many more years before minorities get their fair shake in porn, we will win this battle. Of that, I am absolutely certain.

Thanks Victor. It's intelligent words like these that are the reason you are one of (if not THE) top blog on my list.

1 comment:

I regret not spotting that Unzipped blog posting until you brought it to my attention now... somehow it'd slipped past when reading MOC (which I enjoy, and regularly comment on).

Being a scientist, I tend to pick apart arguments on facts and figures - if you're basing your opinion on a statistical non-entity like "the population of the US African American crowd is 12.5% etc etc" then by smashing that, I can smash your opinion (in my view).

Oddly enough, I can obtain two separate threads which are nearly identical on Unzipped.net, differing only in comments...:

I HIGHLY respect those willing to stand behind their comments with a name. So if you use "Anonymous" on a viewpoint that challenges mine, IT WILL BE DELETED. For your cowardice to not show yourself makes your viewpoint and you irrelevant.